Agile control model system and method

ABSTRACT

A control and monitoring system is provided that includes an automation controller. The system includes a distributed model stored on the automation controller. Changes to the distributed model are provided via delta scripts that define only the changes to the model. Further, the control and monitoring system  24  includes distributed execution engines that execute commands based upon trigger events determined in the system. a plurality of automation control components networked together and with the automation controller, wherein the plurality of automation control components are capable of load balancing among the plurality of automation control components in response to performance demands of the control and monitoring system. These features of the control and monitoring system enable load balancing, data and processing redundancy, and collaborative design within the control and monitoring system.

This application is a Non-Provisional of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/559,008, entitled “Extensible Control Model Systemand Method,” filed Nov. 11, 2011, which is herein incorporated byreference.

BACKGROUND

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field ofautomation control and monitoring systems. More particularly,embodiments of the present disclosure relate to techniques for dynamicand adaptable automation control.

A wide range of applications exist for automation control and monitoringsystems, particularly in industrial settings. Such applications mayinclude the powering of a wide range of actuators, such as valves,electric motors, and so forth, and the collection of data via sensors.Typical automation control and monitoring systems may include one ormore components, such as: programming terminals, automation controllers,input/output (I/O) modules, and/or human-machine interface (HMI)terminals.

The human machine interfaces or “HMIs” are commonly employed formonitoring or controlling various processes. The HMIs may read from orwrite to specific registers such that they can reflect the operatingstate of various machines, sensors, processes, and so forth. Theinterfaces can also write to registers and memories such that they can,to some extent, control the functions of the process. In monitoringfunctions alone, little or no actual control is executed. In many othersettings, similar devices are employed, such as in automobiles,aircraft, commercial settings, and a host of other applications. In manyapplications, the interface may not communicate with a remote device orprocess, but may be operated in a stand-alone manner.

In these interface devices, the objects used in the interface maycorrelate to different controls, monitors, or any other parameter of anindustrial automation device. Some of these objects may have visualrepresentations on the interface devices, while other objects may not bevisually represented but may be accessible for configuration andprogramming by a user. A user may desire to manipulate these objects,such as by creating new objects, copying objects, editing objects, etc.,to create and customize an interface.

Each of the components in an automation control and monitoring systemmay make use of state information of one or more objects (e.g., controlprograms, tags, module configuration, and HMI screens) of the controland monitoring system. From time to time, the components may be used tomodify the state information of the objects. Thus, the components mayneed to communicate the change of states to the control and monitoringsystem, such that the other components may be apprised of state-changesto the objects of the control and monitoring system. Indeed in somecases the change of states may include the addition or deletion ofcertain objects within the control and monitoring system. Traditionalapproaches to communicate the state of a control and monitoring systemobject, for example, have included providing an entire state of theobject to the control and monitoring system. It is now recognized thatsuch approaches are sometimes inefficient, providing more informationthan is necessary to describe a changed state of objects within thecontrol and monitoring system. Providing the entire state of an objectmay result in bandwidth inefficiencies in communicating the state dataas well as processing inefficiencies in consuming and using the data.Further, it is now recognized that such approaches of providing fullstate data may, in some cases, provide increased potential forinadvertent overwriting of other state changes provided in the controland monitoring system.

Further, traditional approaches have relied upon centralized control andmonitoring. For example, traditional control and monitoring systems haverelied upon centralized data models that describe the control system.The reliance on centralized data models may result in processinginefficiencies and increased dependencies on components (e.g., acontroller) hosting the centralized data models.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Certain embodiments commensurate in scope with the originally claimedinvention are summarized below. These embodiments are not intended tolimit the scope of the claimed invention, but rather these embodimentsare intended only to provide a brief summary of possible forms of theinvention. Indeed, the invention may encompass a variety of forms thatmay be similar to or different from the embodiments set forth below.

Present embodiments provide a novel approach to communicating statechange of objects between components in an automation control andmonitoring system. As state changes occur within the control andmonitoring system, only the changed data is communicated to the othercomponents within the control and monitoring system. For example, thecontrol and monitoring system objects may include control programs,tags, module configuration, and graphics for HMI screens. When elementsof these objects change, the changed elements may be provided tocomponents that store state information of the objects in a data-drivenmanner. By only providing the changed elements, rather than providingthe full set of elements for an object, the amount of data transferredto the components may be significantly reduced. Additionally, when anobject is deleted, the full state of an object may not be required.Instead, a mere indication of the deleted object may be provided, thusreducing the amount of data to be transferred when the object has beendeleted. Further, providing the changes in a data-driven manner mayenable the communication to be agnostic, or not dependent upon, aspecific programming technology.

Additionally, the invention provides a novel approach to applying thecommunicated changes and/or distributed commands using execution enginesdistributed throughout the control and monitoring system toasynchronously execute commands based upon the changes. For example, oneor more of the components of the control and monitoring system (e.g., asmart I/O device, a programming terminal, a PLC, and HMI, etc.) may eachinclude an embedded execution engine. The execution engines may bestored on a tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium of thecomponents. When triggered (e.g., by receiving changed stateinformation), the embedded execution engines on the various componentsof the control and monitoring system may asynchronously respond basedupon the trigger or scheduled execution time. For example, thedistributed commands may be user and/or system defined command scriptsthat react to state changes in a one or more ways. By enabling executionof control logic through the execution engines embedded on components ofthe control and monitoring system, more efficient processing may occur.For example, such an execution scheme may take better advantage ofmultiple central processing unit (CPU) cores by distributing the logicthroughout the control and monitoring system.

DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the presentembodiments will become better understood when the following detaileddescription is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in whichlike characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a general overview of a framework for portions of anautomation control and monitoring system in accordance with certainaspects of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatical overview of an automation control andmonitoring system. in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is an overview of certain of the functional components in aninterface and a programming terminal in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 4 is an overview of certain views or containers of device elementsin accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram of the control and monitoring system of FIG. 1,illustrating the use of a persisted object model for communicating statechange, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates a progression of state change communication betweenan instrument of change, an arbiter of change, and an audience member,in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 7 illustrates a process where state changes are undone, inaccordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates a process where external changes are made during apending edit, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 9 illustrates a process for aborting pending changes, in accordancewith an embodiment;

FIG. 10 illustrates a process for compressing pending changes into oneset of changes, in accordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 11 illustrates an automation control and monitoring system thatuses distributed execution engines to execute control commands, inaccordance with an embodiment;

FIG. 12 illustrates a process loop executed through the executionengines, in accordance with an embodiment; and

FIG. 13 illustrates a process for scheduling commands, in accordancewith an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Typically, control and monitoring systems have relied heavily onautomation controllers such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) andautomation controller programming (e.g., PLC programming) to affect thecontrol and monitoring systems when state changes are communicated.Automation controller programming relies heavily on event-based and/orschedule-based execution of tasks and/or logic (e.g., machine-readableinstructions written in a programming language, such as relay ladderlogic) to affect change in the control and monitoring system. Theautomation controllers are often used to consume all input data,calculate and distribute output data, process changes to the data, anddistribute data to the components of the control and monitoring system.Unfortunately, such heavy reliance on a centralized data model hostedand affected by a component of the control and monitoring system (e.g.,the automation controllers and automation controller programming) hasprovided several inefficiencies. For example, as the number of scheduledand event-based tasks for the centralized model increase, degradedperformance may occur because many additional changes to a single modelmay result. Further, the heavy use of the centralized model (e.g., viathe automation controllers) creates a more centralized approach toprocessing control logic, resulting in inefficient execution of controllogic, single-points of failure (e.g., when the automation controllersfail, the entire control and monitoring system may fail), and mayprovide processing strain on the automation controllers.

In accordance with present embodiments, by utilizing a distributed datamodel, distributed state change communication, and distributed commandexecution, the control and monitoring system may become more agile. Forexample, by providing increased collaborative abilities, increased dataredundancy, and processing load-balancing throughout the control andmonitoring system, present embodiments exhibit a more robust and agileautomation control and monitoring environment.

The Robust Control and Monitoring System

A number of facets, components and processes will be described throughthe following discussion. By way of introduction, a general systemoverview is in order that situates these innovations in context. FIG. 1is a diagrammatical representation of a control and monitoring softwareframework 10 for an interface in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent disclosure. The framework 10 facilitates building functionalsoftware by utilizing a module based interconnection mechanism 12, whichinherently supports dynamic manipulation and configuration. This dynamicmanipulation and configuration ability facilitates efficient provisionof feature-rich configuration environments for configurable interfaces.That is, as described below, individual device elements are provided asstand-alone code that can be individually programmed, pre-written foruse, as in a library, customized in their function and appearance inscreens, and interconnected to provide information to a user as well ascontrol and monitoring functions.

The framework 10 includes two interrelated software environments thatcan reside on a single system (e.g., computer). Specifically, a run-timeenvironment 14 enables an operator (e.g., a human user) to interact withan application, such as a process during run-time (e.g., during use ofthe interface, typically during interaction with or observance of aprocess in operation). A design-time environment 16 permits a designerto configure the interface and its components. For example, a system maygraphically present run-time information to an operator via the run-timeenvironment 14 on a display (e.g., computer or interface device screen).Further, the system may include means (e.g., a keypad) for acceptingoperator input that can be detected and managed via the run-timeenvironment 14. The environments interact as described in detail below,in innovative ways to provide greatly enhanced programming and use ofthe interface.

The run-time environment 14 includes or provides access to deviceelements 18. The device elements 18 are software components that mayinclude any accessible or configurable element in a softwareenvironment. For example, the device elements 18 include softwarecomponents, such as “ActiveX” controls or “.NET” components that aremanaged by the run-time environment 14. “ActiveX” and “.NET” refer toobject-oriented concepts, technologies and tools. Those skilled in theart will be well-acquainted with such programming approaches generally.In the present context, such standards should be taken as merelyexamples, and “device elements” should be understood as including anygenerally similar components or self-sufficient programs that can be runas quasi-independent elements, sometimes referred to as “objects”. Otherstandards and platforms exist for such elements, typically championed bydifferent companies or industry groups.

Because such device elements are basic to certain of the concepts setforth herein, a few words of introduction are in order. Device elementsgenerally include four features: properties, methods, connections (orconnection points) and communications interfaces. Properties, in thiscontext, are attributes that can be adjusted, such as to define an imageor representation of the element in a screen view, as well as itslocation on the screen, and so forth. In this context, a method is anexecutable function (sometimes referred to herein as the elements“functionality” or “state engine”), and defines an operation performedby execution of the element. A connection, in this context, is a linkbetween elements, and can be used to cause data (read from a memory orwritten to a memory) to be sent to another element.

Specific examples of device elements 18 may include softwarepushbuttons, timers, gauges, PLC communication servers, visualizations(such as screens that illustrate state of components within theautomation control and monitoring system), and applications. In general,virtually any identifiable function may be configured as such anelement. Moreover, as discussed below, such elements may communicatewith one another to perform a wide range of display, monitoringoperations and control functions. It should be noted that deviceelements 18 do not require special limitations for supporting a designmode. Also, while elements associated with an image are quite useful,particularly for visualizations, many elements may not have a visualrepresentation, but may perform functions within an HMI, such ascalculations, or even management and data exchange between otherelements.

The run-time environment 14 typically operates using a communicationssubsystem 20. The communications subsystem 20 is adapted to interconnectthe device elements 18. In practice, the communications subsystem 20 maybe thought of as including the connections of the device elements 18.However, it may include a range of software, hardware and firmware thatsend data to and receive data from external circuits, such as automationcontrollers, other computers, networks, satellites, sensors, actuators,and so forth.

The run-time environment 14 typically operates using a behavioralsubsystem 22, which is adapted to manage the behavior of the deviceelements 18. For example, responsibilities of the behavioral subsystem22 may include the following: place and move device elements, modifydevice elements, group device elements on interchangeable screens, saveand restore screen layouts, manage security, save and restore connectionlists, and supply remote access to the run-time environment 14. Hereagain, in practice, such behaviors may be defined as part of the profile(i.e., the “method” or “state engine”) of each device element.

The design-time environment 16 includes an advanced implementation ofthe behavioral subsystem 22 that facilitates direct or indirectmanipulation of the run-time environment 14, without impeding orcompromising the behavior of the run-time environment 16. That is,design and reconfiguration of the device elements 18 can be done evenwhile an interface is operating. In some instances, the behavioralsubsystem 22 may extend access to the run-time environment 14 via remoteprovision of the design-time environment 16, such as in a conventionalbrowser. The behavioral subsystem 22 allows a designer to interact withand change aspects of the run-time environment 14 of an HMI via a remoteprogramming terminal by serving the design-time environment 16 oraspects thereof to the programming terminal from the HMI. For example,an HMI coupled to a laptop via a network may provide a user withconfiguration capabilities by serving up a specific design-timeenvironment 16 to the laptop via the network.

Details and examples of how this may be done are provided below. Incurrent embodiments, the design-time environment 16 may be a product ofcombining Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language (DHTML) and an Active ServerPage (ASP) server scripting to serve dynamic content to a browser. AnASP script is specially written code that includes one or more scripts(i.e., small embedded programs) that are processed on a server (e.g.,Web server) before the page is sent to a user. Typically, inconventional usage, such script prompts a server to access data from adatabase and to make a change in the database. Next, the scripttypically builds or customizes the page before sending it to therequestor. As discussed below, such scripting is used in the presentframework quite differently, such as to build visualizations withoutprior knowledge of either the functionality of device elements, or theirinterrelationships.

By facilitating changes to device elements, the design-time environment16 allows the designer to make interchangeable design-time models orspecialized implementations of the behavioral subsystem 22. A specificexample of a design-time implementation of the behavioral subsystem 22includes a Web-based design-time environment 16, which extends access toa run-time environment 14 on an HMI via a TCP/IP connection between theHMI and a remote device. The Web-based design-time environment 16facilitates management of the device elements without compromisingrun-time performance or security. In one specialized implementation thebehavioral subsystem 22 gives designers the ability to manipulateaspects of the run-time environment 14 using a Web browser that iscapable of accessing a related interface or HMI. As noted above, and asdescribed in detail below this is achieved by using a combination ofdynamic content, scripting, and configuration of the device elementproperties.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatical representation of a control and monitoringsystem 24, such as for industrial automation, implementing the frameworkdescribed above in accordance with an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The system 24 includes an HMI 26 adapted to interface withnetworked components and configuration equipment. The system 24 isillustrated as including an HMI 26 adapted to collaborate withcomponents of a process 28 through a control/monitoring device 30 (e.g.,a remote computer, automation controller, such as a programmable logiccontroller (PLC), or other controller). The HMI 26 may physicallyresemble existing hardware, such as a panel, monitor or stand-alonedevice.

Collaboration between the HMI 26 and components of the process 28 may befacilitated by the use of any suitable network strategies. Indeed, anindustry standard network may be employed, such as DeviceNet, to enabledata transfer. Such networks permit the exchange of data in accordancewith a predefined protocol, and may provide power for operation ofnetworked elements. As noted above, while reference is made in thepresent discussion to networked systems and to systems incorporatingcontrollers and other equipment, the HMI 26 and programming techniquesdescribed may be equally well applied to non-networked components (e.g.,GPS displays, game displays, cell phone displays, tablet displays, etc.)and to networked systems outside the industrial automation field. Forexample, the arrangements and processes described below may be used infacilities management, automotive and vehicular interfaces, computernumeric control (CNC) machines, point of sale (POS) systems, controlinterfaces for commercial markets (e.g., elevators, entry systems), andso forth, to mention only a few.

The run-time or operation environment 14 constructed and managed by acorresponding behavioral subsystem, is stored on and resident in the HMI26. For example, such a behavioral subsystem can be adapted to load theapplication configuration framework (e.g., 10) from a storage location,such as during initial manufacture or setup of the HMI 26. When loaded,the stored application framework may be adapted to create screens andlocate user interface device elements (actual images or pictorialrepresentations corresponding to the elements) in the screens. Theseapplications, screens, and user interface elements are each types ofdevice elements. As described below, the HMI 26 includes a storedapplication that dictates the layout and interaction of the deviceelements. The Web-based design-time environment 16, which is based on arun-time engine, is also loaded and resident on the HMI 26. Thedesign-time environment 16 may be adapted to handle advanced features(e.g., security management) for both design-time and run-timeenvironments.

The HMI 26 may be adapted to allow a user to interact with virtually anyprocess. For example, the process may comprise a compressor station, anoil refinery, a batch operation for making food items, a mechanizedassembly line, and so forth. Accordingly, the process 28 may comprise avariety of operational components, such as electric motors, valves,actuators, sensors, or a myriad of manufacturing, processing, materialhandling and other applications. Further, the process 28 may comprisecontrol and monitoring equipment for regulating process variablesthrough automation and/or observation. The illustrated process 28comprises sensors 34 and actuators 36. The sensors 34 may comprise anynumber of devices adapted to provide information regarding processconditions. The actuators 36 may similarly include any number of devicesadapted to perform a mechanical action in response to an input signal.

As illustrated, these sensors 34 and actuators 36 are in communicationwith the control/monitoring device 30 (e.g., an automation controller)and may be assigned a particular address in the control/monitoringdevice 30 that is accessible by the HMI 26. The sensors 34 and actuators36 may be in direct communication with the HMI 26. These devices may beutilized to operate process equipment. Indeed, they may be utilizedwithin process loops that are monitored and controlled by thecontrol/monitoring device 30 and/or the HMI 26. Such a process loop maybe activated based on process inputs (e.g., input from a sensor 34) ordirect inputs (e.g., operator input received through the HMI 26).

The server software on the interface permits viewing of the developmentenvironment, and direct reconfiguration of the interface (particularlyof the device elements and their associated appearance andfunctionality) without the need for special viewing or configurationsoftware. This benefit flows from the fact that the device elements andthe design-time environment itself is resident in the HMI 26, and“served up” by the HMI 26 to a browser or other general purpose vieweron a programming terminal 46. In other words, necessary support forexternal computer workstations (e.g., laptop and desktop computers) maybe reduced or eliminated. It should be noted that reference to a“browser” for viewing and modifying configuration of the interfaces isnot limited to Web browsers or to any particular browser. References toa browser are intended to be exemplary. More generally, the term“browser” is utilized herein to reference software which includes anygeneral purpose viewer.

The HMI 26, through the programming of the device elements as describedbelow, may be thought of as including instructions for presenting one ormore screen views or visualizations, and device elements executed uponinteraction with the HMI 26 by reference to the screen views (e.g.,pressing a button, touching a location of a screen, and the like). Thescreen views and device elements may be defined by any desired softwareor software package. For example, the screen views and device elementsmay be called by or executed by an operating system 38. The deviceelements, as discussed above, in accordance with present embodiments,may be objects conforming to “.NET” or “ActiveX” standards. Theoperating system itself may be based upon any suitable platform, such asWindow CE, OS-X, etc. As referenced herein, the device elements andtools support Web services or technology for transmitting data overnetworks (e.g., the Internet). These device elements thus follow a setof rules regarding information sharing and are adapted for use withvarious scripting and programming languages, as described below. Suchdevice elements enable provision of interactive content to outsideapplications such as a LAN, WAN, an intranet, an extranet, or even theWorld Wide Web. Accordingly, the operating system 38 and the variousdevice elements facilitate dynamic configuration of the HMI 26 through abrowser 48 by allowing configuration access (e.g., serving up) to thebrowser 48.

For example, such configuration access includes access for instantiationof device elements. In other words, new device elements can actually becreated and implemented from the browser 48. Again, it should be notedthat the browser 48 does not require actual functional access. Indeed,in one embodiment, requests via the browser 48 result in a “draw”sequence of operations based on data functionality and content of deviceelements in a container, thus allowing illustration of the deviceelement representations and access to their configuration withoutactually serving up functional aspects. This allows for configurationvia a remote workstation without necessitating technical support for theremote workstation.

In addition to the operating system 38 and device elements as describedabove (and as described in greater detail below), the HMI 26 includes anapplication or application layer 40. The application, which may itselfcomprise a device element, facilitates access to and acquisition ofinformation from the various device elements of the HMI 26. Inparticular, the application 40 represents a first level in a multi-leveldevice element that can be enumerated for execution. The application 40in a practical implementation may comprise a user application in theform of an XML page. The user application is then interacted with by theuser or operator, as well as by the designer as described in greaterdetail below.

The screen views and device elements may be described as independentexecutable pieces of software. In a present implementation, the screenviews are defined by appropriate code written in a markup language(e.g., Hypertext Markup Language or HTML). Thus, the configuration ofgraphical interface screens for the HMI 26 may be performed without theuse of conversion programs. Further, by programming of the deviceelements, the screen views may be developed directly on the HMI 26 viaresident server software (designated as server 42) that makes theresident development environment available for remote access.Specifically, in one embodiment, representations of certain deviceelements (e.g., ActiveX controls) are served up to the browser 48without serving up the software components themselves. Because adevelopment or design-time environment may be accessed via a browser 48,the need to download changes to the screens and to update remoteconfiguration software applications can be eliminated.

As noted above, device elements may include functionality by which theyread from or write to specific memory or registers of memory, typicallyin other devices (but which could also be within the HMI). For example,a particular function may correspond to writing to or reading from aregister 32 of control/monitoring device 30. In a simple case, forexample, an object accesses a piece of data (e.g., a state of acomponent as determined by a sensor), and generates an output signal towrite a value corresponding to the state of a different networkeddevice. As will be discussed in more detail below, such stateinformation may be communicated via state deltas 43. For example, in theembodiment depicted in FIG. 2, the control/monitoring device 30 and HMI26 may communicate state information using state deltas 43. Further, theprogramming terminal 46 may communicate state information with the HMI26 and contro/monitoring device 30 using the state deltas 43, as well.

Much more complex functionality can, of course, be configured. In anindustrial control and monitoring context, for example, such deviceelements may emulate operation of a range of physical components, suchas a momentary contact push button, a push button with delayed output, aswitch, and so forth. Many pre-programmed device elements may beavailable for use by the HMI 26. Such functional modules may beaccessible via a network, or may be resident on the HMI 26, or residenton a separate device directly linked to the HMI 26. In this way, an HMIsupplier or software supplier may provide many possible building blocksfrom which screens and complex control and monitoring functions may beprogrammed. Indeed, a library 44 of available device elements may resideon the HMI 26 to facilitate configuration of the HMI 26, as describedbelow. The screen instructions may call upon the device elements forperforming desired functions based upon operator inputs, and theseinstructions may be programmed into versions of the pre-programmedelements. For example, the operator may provide initiating inputs bytouching a location on a touch screen or depressing keys on a keyboard.Based upon the screen instructions and the device elements associatedwith the instructions (e.g., with specific locations triggering calls orexecution of pre-configured device elements) the desired functions maythen be executed. Accordingly, the operator is enabled to interact witha process, typically to change screen views, write to registers, orcommand the generation of other output or control signals. In astand-alone implementation, the interactions may simply recall or storedata, change screens, and so forth.

One or more separate interface screens may be employed, with some HMIshaving many such screens and a great number of device elements. Eachdevice element may, in turn, be uniquely programmed to consider specificinputs, perform specific functions, and generate signals for specificoutputs. A plurality of such device elements can be loaded and hosted ina single software “container” (e.g., ActiveX container) as describedbelow.

The HMI 26 may be configured by interacting directly with a panel orscreen on the HMI 26 itself (if one is present), but in many casesconfiguration will be performed from the remote programming terminal 46.For example, access is provided directly to the resident library 44and/or operating system 38 and application 40 via a browser 48 orsimilar application. In a present implementation, no other specializedsoftware is required at the programming terminal 46. Indeed, the server42 resident on the HMI 26 may provide access to the device elements inlibrary 44. By storing the device elements in library 44 directly on theHMI 26, the risk of version conflicts and so forth are eliminated orreduced. Additionally, the HMI 26 may be directly connected to theprogramming terminal 46, or accessed by reference to an IP address(Internet Protocol address) assigned to the HMI 26.

Access control schemes may be used to limit the ability to changescreens and device elements. For example, a password or user accessstatus may be required to gain such access. Further, in a presentlycontemplated embodiment, the programming terminal automaticallyrecognizes the HMI 26 or the terminal on which the HMI 26 is resident asa device upon being coupled to the programming terminal 46 (e.g.,similar to an external memory or drive). Thus, once connected to theprogramming terminal, the HMI 26 may simply be “recognized” as a devicethat can be accessed (providing the configuration screen and toolsdescribed below).

Once the device elements then resident on the HMI 26 are accessible tothe programming terminal 46, aspects of the HMI 26 can be modified orupdated directly on the HMI 26 via the communication link from theprogramming terminal 46. For example, a user may wish to update aparticular HMI graphic to provide data, such as historical data ortrending relating to information being received from a newly installedsensor 34. Additionally, the user may find it desirable or convenient toupdate the HMI graphic for presentation of such data while in anoff-line mode (e.g., without immediately implementing the changes). Insuch a scenario, the user may link to the library 44 of available deviceelements via the programming terminal 46 and use them to modify the HMIgraphic or functionality in a development environment.

It should be noted that additional device elements can be added to thelibrary 44. For example, if a trending device element is not resident onthe HMI 26, a user can download such an element to the HMI 26 from aconfiguration library 50 resident on the programming terminal 46.Alternatively, a user could access the trending device element from aresource library 52 accessible via a network (e.g., the Internet),either directly to HMI 26 or through the programming terminal 46. Thismay be particularly beneficial because new and improved device elementscan be downloaded to the HMI 26 individually and on a periodic basis,thus adding new functionality without necessitating the periodic releaseof new conversion programs or HMI operating systems, or run-time ordesign-time environment software. The development environment mayprovide links to such libraries. Further, in embodiments using embeddedcode (e.g., operating system, server software, device objects, etc.),because the embedded code resides on the HMI 26, version conflicts withthe embedded code may be avoided and the necessity for programmingterminal software upgrades may be eliminated.

To track the state information of the one or more components of thecontrol and monitoring system 24, the components of the control andmonitoring system 24 may use a distributed data model representingvarious aspects of the control and monitoring system 24. For example,the distributed data model may enable multiple cached copies of a datamodel representing the control and monitoring system 24 to exist withinthe control and monitoring system 24 (e.g., at one or more of thecomponents of the control and monitoring system 24). As will bedescribed in more detail below, the distributed data model may work inconjunction with delta scripting and distributed command handling. Thedelta scripting may enable one or more components of the control andmonitoring system 24 to determine state changes to the data model,generate a delta script that contains only the changes to the data modeland/or the entire data model, and provide the delta script to othercomponents of the control and monitoring system 24. The other componentsmay consume the delta scripts and apply the data contained within thedelta scripts to a locally cached copy of the data model (e.g.,distributed copy contained at one of the components of the control andmonitoring system 24). Further, as will be discussed in more detailbelow, certain components of the control and monitoring system 24 mayutilize distributed execution engines that enable distributed commandhandling. Such distributed command handling enables distributedcomponents of the control and monitoring system 24 to handle commandexecution based upon an event or schedule provided to the distributedcomponents.

By using the distributed data model, the distributed deltacommunications (e.g., via the delta scripts), and the distributedcommand execution, the resultant control and monitoring system 24 may bemore robust and agile. For example, rather than depending on thecentralized data model at a centralized control/monitoring device 30,the distributed copies of the data model may be used to affect changeswithin the control and monitoring system 24. For example, rather thanrelying on a centralized data model at the control/monitoring device 30to affect change on the HMI 26, the HMI 26 may include a copy of thedistributed data model, which it relies upon to affect change within theHMI 26. Further, the HMI 26 may receive state deltas 43 (e.g., via deltascripts) that are consumed by the HMI 26 and applied by the HMI 26 tothe HMI's local copy of the data model. Additionally, as will bedescribed in more detail below, the HMI 26 may include a local executionengine (e.g., an execution engine that is distributed at the HMI 26)that is useful for execution, at the HMI 26, of commands provided to theHMI 26.

Further, such functionality enables synchronized data stores to bepresent across the control and monitoring system 24. These synchronizeddata stores may enable collaboration by enabling multiple users to makechanges to an individual data store that will be synchronized with eachof the other data stores. Further, because the data stores may cacheindividual copies of the data of the control and monitoring system 24,offline modifications may be made. For example, through use of datacached in one of the data stores, a user may make modifications to thecontrol and monitoring system 24, even when a controller is unavailable.When the user comes back online (e.g., can access a controller), themodifications made by the user while offline may be synchronized withthe other data stores. Accordingly, the users may be able to providechanges to the control and monitoring system 24 in a more consistent andreliable manner.

For example, one user may make changes to tag definitions, metadatadefinitions, may rename elements of a design, may modify alarm settings,change data-types, and/or modify a data log condition in designsoftware, such as RSLogix 5000™ by Rockwell Automation, Inc. Thesechanges submitted by the user may be made to a local data store. Whenonline, the changes may be propagated to other data stores within thecontrol and monitoring system 24, thus applying the changes across thesystem 24. When offline, the changes may be retained in the local datastore and may be synchronized upon returning online (e.g., reconnectingto a controller of the control and monitoring system 24). Throughautomatic propagation of changes, redundant change entry may be avoided,saving development efforts. Further, there may be reduced debug andinitialization based upon the automatic renaming propagation through thesystem 24. Further, because these changes may originate throughout thesystem, flexible workflows may be enabled when different users developthe controller and the HMI.

As mentioned above, by distributing the data model, propagating changesto distributed data model via delta scripts, and distributing commandexecution, the control and monitoring system 24 may be vastly improvedover traditional control and monitoring systems. For example, clients ofthe control and monitoring system 24 (e.g., components that request datain the data model of the control and monitoring system 24) may be servedby any one of the multiple copies of the data model distributed withinthe control and monitoring system 24. The control and monitoring system24 may determine which copy to serve the client from based upon one ofmany deciding factors. For example, a particular distributed data modelcopy may be chosen to serve data to a client based upon performanceefficiencies, such as an efficient network pathway (e.g., which copy isclosest to the client, either locally or on the network, or whichnetwork pathway has the most bandwidth, etc.). Further, processingconsideration may also be factored into such a decision. For example,such a robust control and monitoring system 24 may enable data to beserved to a client utilizing load balancing techniques. In oneembodiment, the client may be served data from a component that containsa distributed copy of the data model that is known to or likely to servefewer requests than another component of the control and monitoringsystem 24. In one example, a control and monitoring system 24 mayinclude two control/monitoring devices 30 (e.g., 2 automationcontrollers). The control and monitoring system 24 may predict orobserve that the first control/monitoring device 30 is receiving morerequests for data than the second control/monitoring device 30.Accordingly, the control and monitoring system 24 may determine to servethe client from the second control/monitoring device 30 to avoidover-utilization of the first control/monitoring device 30. Thus, thecontrol and monitoring system 24 may avoid flooding of thecontrol/monitoring devices 30 by balancing the requests based upon theload of components within the control and monitoring system 24. Incertain embodiments, this may include supplying requests from a singlecomponent to a threshold number of requests or amount of data and movingto an overflow source when the threshold is met. In some embodiments,this may include essentially evenly sharing a load of requests or amountof data in supplying the data.

In addition to the load-balancing capabilities that the distributed datamodel, delta scripts, and execution engines may provide, thesecapabilities may also be beneficial for data redundancy in the controland monitoring system 24. For example, one or more components within thecontrol and monitoring system 24 may monitor one or more of thedistributed copies of the data model. Upon detecting that the copy isunstable (e.g., a copy that does not accurately represent thedistributed model), the unstable copy may be replaced by a stable copy(e.g., a copy that accurately represents the distributed model). Thestable copy may be obtained from any of the other copies of the datamodel distributed in the control and monitoring system 24 that aredetermined to have a copy that accurately represents the data model.

In some embodiments, a component of the control and monitoring system 24may access a redundancy pool that provides a pointer to valid copies ofthe distributed data model or components of the control and monitoringsystem 24 storing valid copies of the distributed data model. Forexample, when a client component requests data in data model, it mayaccess the redundancy pool which communicates where the data may beobtained. As discussed above, one or more components of the control andmonitoring system 24 may monitor the copies of the data model todetermine unstable copies. When one or more unstable copies aredetected, a component of the control and monitoring system 24 may removethe pointer to the unstable copy or the component of the control andmonitoring system 24 storing the unstable copy. Accordingly, theunstable copy is not accessible via the redundancy pool.

In certain embodiments, after the unstable copy (or the componentstoring the unstable copy) is removed from the redundancy pool, acomponent of the control and monitoring system 24 may replace theunstable copy with a stable version, as discussed above. After theunstable copy has been replaced, a component of the control andmonitoring system 24 may re-add the replacement stable version (or thecomponent storing the replacement stable version) back to the redundancypool for future use.

To better illustrate the relationship between the design-time andrun-time environments, FIG. 3 provides a high-level flow diagramrepresenting interaction between an HMI 26 and a programming terminal46. More detail regarding such processes is provided below. In general,a platform for the HMI 26 and programming terminal 46 will include theoperating system or executive software 38, application software 40, aswell as any communication software, a microprocessor, a networkinterface, input/output hardware, generic software libraries, databasemanagement, user interface software, and the like (not specificallyrepresented in FIG. 3). In the illustrated embodiment, a design-timeplatform and a run-time platform interact within the HMI 26. Thedesign-time platform provides views that are served as the design-timeenvironment 16 to a desktop personal computer platform (e.g., running asuitable operating system 38, such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, orLinux) and the run-time platform cooperates with the design-timeplatform via the operating system (e.g., Windows CE, Linux). Thedesign-time platform provides dynamic server content 54, while therun-time platform displays views on the HMI 26 itself (if a displayscreen is provided on the HMI 26). The design-time environment 16 isdisplayed in a browser 48 (e.g., Web browser or other general purposeviewer).

FIG. 3 represents at a very high level how the design-time environment16 interacts with the operating system 38, application 40 and run-timeenvironment 14. The arrow 56 represents dynamic exchange of contentbetween the HMI 26 and programming terminal 46. In general, interactionwith the design-time environment 16 is the task of a designer 58 whoinitially configures the HMI screens or visualizations, device elements,their functions and interactions, or who reconfigures such software. Therun-time environment 14 is generally interacted with by an operator 60directly at the HMI 26. It should be noted that while the design-timeenvironment 16 has specific needs, in a current embodiment, it dependsheavily on the operating system 38, application 40 and run-timeenvironment 14. The design-time environment 16 and the run-timeenvironment 14 may utilize certain base technologies (e.g., DHTML, HTML,HTTP, dynamic server content, JavaScript, Web browser) to operaterespectively in the design-time platform and run-time platform. While,in the illustrated embodiment, the run-time environment 14 and thedesign-time environment 16 reside on separate platforms, in someembodiments they may reside on the same platform. For example, thedesign-time platform and run-time platform may be configured as orconsidered a single platform.

In one embodiment of the present invention, a design-time Webimplementation is utilized. This design-time Web implementation offersthe speed and flexibility of software running on the design-timeplatform by using a Web browser (e.g., 48) with DHTML support from theHMI, as noted by the dynamic server content 54 in FIG. 3 and asdescribed below. DHTML is used to perform dynamic manipulation of Webcontent in the design-time environment 16. Further, the dynamic servercontent 54 is used in the HMI to serve dynamic Web content to thedesign-time environment 16. This dynamic client-server environmentallows the Web browser to simulate an application running on thedesign-time platform without requiring a piece of software compiled fora related processor.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating one or more device elements in adesign-time environment in accordance with embodiments of the presenttechniques. The diagram includes interactions illustrated byrelationships between a display 100 (e.g., a screen for browserdisplay), a property editor 102, and the HMI 26.

The design-time environment represented by the configuration screen ordisplay 100 includes static content 104 and dynamic content. The dynamiccontent includes images corresponding to any displayed or representeddevice elements 106 (e.g., virtual on/off button, gauge). In oneembodiment of the present techniques, the image is specified by an imagetag in HTML and is part of a JPEG file created by the HMI as describedbelow. The static content 104 may be created by an active server page(ASP) server or it may preexist in an HTML file. It should be notedthat, in some embodiments, only designated designers can edit the staticcontent 104.

The design-time environment represented by the configuration screen ordisplay 100 includes static content 104 and dynamic content. The dynamiccontent includes images corresponding to any displayed or representeddevice elements 106 (e.g., virtual on/off button, gauge). In oneembodiment of the present techniques, the image is specified by an imagetag in HTML and is part of a JPEG file created by the HMI as describedbelow. The static content 104 may be created by the ASP server or it maypreexist in an HTML file. It should be noted that, in some embodiments,designated designers only can edit the static content 104.

In the representation of FIG. 4, the device element representation 106is contained within a view container 108. As will be appreciated bythose skilled in the art, a container generally defines a portion of aprocessing space in which certain device elements are opened and readyfor use. The container 108 may thus correspond to a first view containerthat includes only the elements viewable within the current screen. Asdiscussed above, many such screens may be provided in the HMI. Otherscreens, such as alternative control or interface screens may beprovided in other view containers, such as a container 110. In general,to speed the operation (e.g., changing between screen views) of the HMI,such view containers are predefined and associated with one another bydefinition of the individual device elements with which they are eitherassociated or within which representations of the device elements areprovided. A global container 112 may be defined to include all of thedevice elements necessary for the various view containers, as well asother elements that may not be represented in any view container. Asillustrated in FIG. 4, therefore, view container 108 includes thevirtual button 106 which performs a “jog” function and is manifested bya representation in a first screen. New container 110 includes severalcomponents, such as a “start” button 114, a “stop” button 116, a virtualgage 118 and a digital readout 120. The global container 112, then, willinclude all of these device elements for the various view containers, aswell as any device elements 122 that are required for operation of theviewable device elements but that are not themselves viewable. Suchdevice elements may include elements that perform computations,trending, communications, and a wide range of other functions.

FIG. 4 also illustrates a property editor 102 in which a user may accessvarious properties of the element 106. As discussed above, the element106 may also include connections and text associated with the element106, which may also be configured by the user via an editor, similar tothe property editor 102.

In an embodiment, the property editor 102 may interact with the HMI 26via a query string from the browser (e.g., browser 48 of FIG. 2) to aserver 96 (e.g., HTTP server) that is resident on the HMI 26. The server96 cooperates with an ASP server 98 including the module basedinterconnection mechanism 12, such as a dynamic-link library (DLL) toreceive and respond to queries. The DLL allows for storage of executableroutines as separate files, which can be loaded when needed orreferenced by a program. In the example set forth above, upon receivingthe call, the page is reloaded by the ASP server 98 and the query stringis initially parsed resulting in evaluation of the move command. Serverside scripts then access the device element 18 represented by the image106 and to update its location property. The new property information isthen updated on the page and the page is passed to the browser 48.

Communicating State Change

Having now discussed the benefits of using the distributed data model inconjunction with the distributed state change notification via the deltascripts and distributed command execution, a more detailed discussion ofthe distributed state change notification will be provided. As discussedabove, FIG. 2 is a diagrammatical representation of an exemplary controland monitoring system 24 adapted to provide component state informationusing delta scripts in accordance with embodiments of the presenttechniques. As illustrated, the control and monitoring system 24 mayinclude one or more human machine interfaces (HMI) 26 and one or morecontrol/monitoring devices 30 adapted to interface with components of aprocess 28. The control/monitoring devices 30 may include one or moreprocessors and a data storage device useful for performing tasks on thecontrol and monitoring system 24 (e.g., process control, remoteequipment monitoring, data acquisition, etc.). Further, a programmingterminal 46 may enable one or more users to configure attributes of theHMI 26 and/or control/monitoring devices 30.

In the control environment, the state of various objects (e.g., controlprograms, tags, module configuration, and HMI screens) of the controland monitoring system 24 may be stored in memories (e.g., hard drives,read-only memory, and/or random-access memory) of various components ofthe control and monitoring system 24 (e.g., a programming terminal 46,the control/monitoring device 30, I/O modules, and/or HMI terminals 26.Each of the components of the control and monitoring system 24 mayoperate independently in a loosely coupled, asynchronous fashion.Further the components may be implemented with different programmingtechnologies (e.g., C++, Java, and/or C#). As changes are made to thestate information of the control environment objects, the stateinformation may need to be synchronized with the state informationresiding on the other components, such that the components maycontinually understand the state of the objects within the control andmonitoring system 24. In accordance with present embodiments, to stayapprised of state information, automation components that store stateinformation may receive data referred to as state deltas 43 (e.g., stateelements that have changed), while not receiving state elements thathave not changed and thus are already present in the stored stateinformation on the various components storing the state information. Forexample, state deltas 43 may include any data that has changed due to anaction within the control and monitoring system 24. By providing thestate deltas 43 and not providing the unchanged state information,increased efficiency may be observed. For example, in a traditionalcontrol and monitoring system 24 with 100 state elements, each of the100 state elements may be provided to each component storing thatobject's state information. By only providing the state deltas 43,components of the control and monitoring system 24 may only transmitdata for the elements that were changed. Thus, if only one element ofthe 100 state elements is changed, the 99 other elements would not betransmitted, thus reducing network traffic relative to traditionalsystems. Further, providing only the state deltas 43 may reduce thepotential of inadvertently overwriting state change information that isgenerated elsewhere within the control and monitoring system 24. Forexample, in the case of the 100 state elements mentioned above, when all100 state elements are transmitted to the other components, the 99unchanged elements may result in an overwrite of changes made to one ofthose 99 components elsewhere. By providing only the changed elements(e.g., the state deltas 43), the 99 unchanged elements will not beaffected by the one element that was changed and communicated to theother components.

Having now discussed the use of the state deltas 24, FIG. 5 illustratesa control and monitoring system 24 that includes a persisted objectmodel for communicating state changes between components of the controland monitoring system 24. For example, the components may include thecontrol/monitoring device 30 (e.g., a PLC), a programming terminal 46providing a project file 150, and a component, such as acontrol/monitoring device 30 hosting the persisted object model 152 anda collaborative session 154, and a client 156. As previously discussed,the control/monitoring device 30 may be adapted to interface withcomponents of a process 28 (FIG. 1). The project file 150 may be acomputer file output representing various attributes of the control andmonitoring system 24 defined and stored in a memory (e.g., hard drive)of the programming terminal 46 (FIG. 1). The persisted object model 152may be a computer model of state data of one or more components in thecontrol and monitoring system 24 that keeps track of changes made to thestate data in the control and monitoring system 24 in a persistentfashion (e.g., by storing the state data on a non-volatile storagemedium such as a hard drive). The persisted object model 152 mayfunction as the change communication authority, such that all committedchanges made to the state of an object are stored and communicatedthrough the persisted object model 152. As will be discussed in moredetail below, the collaborative session 154 may be an interactiveinformation exchange interface between components of the control andmonitoring system 24 that provides an environment for making pendingchanges (e.g., some changes may only be applied and communicated toother components of the control and monitoring system 24 after a userchooses to commit the changes). The client 156 may be any othercomponent of the control and monitoring system 24 that retains stateinformation of objects in memory, such as a component that provides apresentation view of an object.

In the illustrated embodiment, each of the illustrated components (thecontrol/monitoring device 30 providing collaborative session data 154,the programming terminal 46 providing an updated project file 150, thecontrol/monitoring device 30 providing the persisted object model 152and the collaborative session 154, and client 156) includes a datacontainer 158 (e.g., a memory reserved for data). The data container 158contains state elements 160 that define the state of one or more objectsof the control and monitoring system 24. The state elements 160 may bedefined in a data driven manner such that different technologies (e.g.,C++, Java, and/or C#) may make use of the data represented by the stateelements 160. As previously discussed, it may be desirable toefficiently synchronize the state information stored in the variouscomponents of the control and monitoring system 24. As one or more ofthe state elements 160 stored in the data containers 158 change, thedata elements 160 stored in the other components may need to besynchronized.

As discussed above, the persisted object model 152 may be the designatedauthority in applying state changes among the various components in thecontrol and monitoring system 24. The persisted object model 152 mayinclude what is referred to as a golden copy 162 of the stateinformation for one or more objects in its data container 158 (as isillustrated by the cross-hatching). The golden copy 162 includes a copyof the state information, which the control and monitoring system 24always considers correct. In other words, the golden copy 162 is anauthoritative copy of the state information. Each piece of stateinformation has its own golden copy 162 which may or may not reside withthe golden copies 162 of other pieces of state information within thecontrol and monitoring system 24 (e.g., on the same computer system).When one or more state element changes are committed, the changedelements are provided to the golden copy 162 in the form of a deltascript 170, which is updated based upon the state element changes. Thestate element changes are then provided from the golden copy, via thedelta scripts 170, to the other components within the control andmonitoring system 24.

To affect state change within the data containers 158, the components ofthe control and monitoring system 24 may play various roles. The rolesmay include an instrument of change 164, an arbiter of change 166, andan audience 168. The instrument of change 164 (e.g. a client providing amodified project file 150 via an editor in the current embodiment) sendsa change request to the arbiter of change 166. The instrument of change164 may verify the success of the change by receiving an asynchronouschange response and/or an error response regarding the change request.The arbiter of change 166 (e.g., a server hosting the persisted objectmodel 42) queues incoming changes, processes the changes by carrying outthe requested changes, makes other side-effect changes based upon therequest, or discards the change. The arbiter of change 166 may provide achange response to the instrument of change 164, publish a changenotification to the audience 168 (e.g., a client 156 and/orcontrol/monitoring device 30 involved in a collaborative session 154)when changes occur, and/or write the changes to the golden copy 162. Theaudience 168 receives the change notifications and uses thenotifications to update their local copy of the state information storedin their data container 158.

As previously discussed, the programming technology used in the variouscomponents of the control and monitoring system 24 may not be uniform.For example, some components may utilize C++, while others may utilizeC# or Java. Thus, the state deltas 43 of FIG. 1 provided between theinstrument of change 164, the arbiter of change 166, and the audience168 may be provided in a data-driven delta script 170 that is notdependent on a particular technology. The delta script 170 may describethe object state changes in the form of create, update, and/or delete(CRUD) data. Create data may include some or all of the data useful forcreation of an object (e.g., for a rectangle, the spatial location,width, and height of the rectangle). Default values may be used for anydata not provided with the create request. Update data may include datathat has been updated in the object (e.g., for a rectangle graphic thathas an updated spatial location, the update data may only include thenew spatial location). The delete data may identify (e.g., describe anidentifier of) the object state data that has been removed (e.g., for arectangle that has been removed, the delete data may include a name ofthe rectangle to be deleted). In one example, if a change was createdusing the following C# pseudo code:

ChangeManager cm = new GetChangeManager( ); CreateChange c1 =Changes.Composite( ).   Create(“Rectangle”).Under(model).Set(“X”,“10”).Set(“Y”, “10”).Set(“Width”, “100”).Set(“Height”, “200”).  Create(“Circle”).Under(model).Set(“X”, “10”).Set(“Y”,“10”).Set(“Radius”, “100”); cm.Do(c1);In some embodiments, a data-driven delta script might be similar to thefollowing pseudo XML example:

<Script>   <Create type=“com.rockwell.Rectangle”, CreatorID=”45:2331”parentID=”92”>     <Setter property=“X”, value=“10” />     <Setterproperty=“Y”, value=“10” />     <Setter property=“Width”, value=“100” />    <Setter property=“Height”, value=“200” />   </Create>   <Createtype=“com.rockwell.Circle”, CreatorID=”45:4281” parentID=”67”>    <Setter property=“X”, value=“10” />     <Setter property=“Y”,value=“10” />     <Setter property=“Radius”, value=“100” />   </Create></Script>In alternative embodiments, it may not be necessary to include CreatorIDor parentID. However, these id's are provided in the current embodimentto illustrate additional data that may be included with the changes(e.g., an identity of the entity that made the change and/or a parentobject under which the current object is created). Because thedata-driven delta script 170 is agnostic or not dependent on aparticular programming technology, the delta script 170 may be consumedby any of the other components of the control and monitoring system 24,regardless of the programming technology used.

As illustrated in the example above, in some embodiments, the deltascripts 170 may include more than one change. Thus, the delta scripts170 provide a way to process an entire set of changes in an all ornothing approach. For example, as illustrated above, two sets of createdata are contained within the delta script for visualization on adisplay, one set to create a rectangle image and one set to create acircle image. If creation of the circle image results in an error, therectangle change may be undone, resulting in an all or nothing approach.

The delta scripts 170 may also include header information such as achange revision number, timestamp when the change was committed, anidentifier of the user that made the change, and/or a unique revisionidentifier. The identifier of the user may be useful to authenticate thesource of the change. Further, the delta scripts 170 include anidentifier of the objects to which the change applies, the stateelements 160 that have changed, and the change value of the stateelements 160. A create data set may include an object's full state(e.g., all state elements 160), as it will be the first time each of thestate elements 160 is introduced to the consumers of the delta scripts170.

Turning now to FIG. 6, the progression 190 of state change communicationbetween an instrument of change 164, an arbiter of change 166, and anaudience member 168 is illustrated. In the current embodiment, theaudience 168 (e.g., client 156) provides a subscription request 192 tothe collaborative session 154. The subscription request 192 may includea revision number for the revision 194 of the state information storedin the audience member 168. When the revision on the collaborativesession 154 does not match the revision number sent in the subscriptionrequest 192, the collaborative session will send out immediatenotification of updates with the set of delta scripts 170 needed tobring the audience member 168 up to the revision stored in thecollaborative session 154. For example, in panel A, the client 156 sendsa subscription request 192 that includes revision 5. The collaborativesession 154 is on revision 8, and thus sends delta scripts 170 forrevisions 6, 7, and 8 to the client 156. The client 156 may apply thedelta scripts 170 to its state and thus, as illustrated in panel B, theclient is updated to revision 8.

When an instrument of change 164 (e.g., a client or server that providesan updated program file 150) updates the golden copy 162, thecollaborative session 154 and the subscribing audience members (e.g.,client 156) should be notified of the change. As illustrated in panel B,upon update of the golden copy 162 from revision 8 to revision 9 (e.g.,via a change orchestrated by sending an updated project file 150 fromthe instrument of change 164), the arbiter of change 166 provides adelta script 170 for revision 9 to the collaborative session 154. Asillustrated in panel C, the collaborative session 154 applies the deltascript 170 for revision 9 and, thus, is updated to revision 9. The deltascript 170 is then propagated to the audience member 168 (e.g., theclient 156). The client 156 applies the delta script 170 and is updatedto revision 9.

In certain scenarios, an audience member may need more delta scripts 170than are stored in the collaborative session 154. For example, if client156 were to send a subscription request 192 while on revision 2, and thecollaborative session 154 only had the delta scripts 170 for revisions5-8, client 156 would still need the delta scripts 170 for revisions 3and 4. When the collaborative session 154 is lacking necessary deltascripts 170, it may request that the golden copy 162 provide the neededdelta scripts 170. In some embodiments, the golden copy 162 will storeall delta scripts for each revision of an object's state information.However, in other embodiments, only a limited number of scripts will bestored (e.g., the last 5, 10, 50, or 100 revisions of delta scripts170). If the golden copy 162 can provide the necessary scripts, they arepropagated through the collaborative session 154 to the client 156.However, if the necessary delta scripts cannot be propagated, theaudience member 168 may be notified (e.g., via an exception message)and/or the audience member 168 may be reloaded with the entire set ofelements associated with the current state information, bringing theaudience member 168 up to date. Further, if the audience member 168encounters errors applying one or more of the delta scripts 170, theaudience member 168 may be reloaded with the entire set of elementsassociated with the current state information. Additionally, in certainsituations, when there are a large number of delta scripts 170 thatwould need to be applied in order to update the audience member 168, itmay be more efficient or desirable to fully reload all of the stateinformation, rather than applying the state deltas. In certainembodiments, the audience member 168 may be reloaded with the entire setof elements associated with the current state information when thenumber of delta scripts that would need to be applied is over a maximumdelta script threshold. The maximum delta script threshold may becustomized based upon a perceived number of delta scripts that wouldtend to make a full reload of state information more efficient thanloading incremental delta scripts.

In certain embodiments, the control and monitoring system 24 may alsoinclude reverse deltas. Reverse deltas describe the changes necessary tochange from a current revision back to the previous revision. Whenapplied, the reverse delta scripts will take an object's stateinformation back one revision. Such reverse delta scripts are applied todata containers (e.g., data containers 158 of FIG. 5) that contain thesame revision number as the reverse delta script. Reverse delta scriptsmay be useful to create “undo” functionality for changes committed inthe control and monitoring system 24 and may also be used to back outpending changes that have not yet been committed, such as those createdin the collaborative session 154 prior to committing the changes.

FIG. 7 illustrates one undo scenario, in accordance with an embodiment.In panel A, an edit session for revision 211 of an object 210 isinitiated by a first client. Edits are made within the session, by thefirst client, to bring the object 210 to pending revision 214 in panelB. The first client disconnects, and while disconnected, a second clientundoes revisions 214 and 213, as illustrated in panel C. The secondclient then makes new changes 213 and 214.

To prevent the first client from detecting that it is up to date whenjust based upon revision number, each revision will be assigned anidentifier, such that the combination of the revision number and theidentifier creates a unique identifier for the revision number. Whenreverse delta scripts are applied to undo a change, the undone deltascripts may be retained, such that “redo” functionality may beimplemented. When changes are redone, the previous identifier for therevision is reused because the delta script is reintroducing the samechange that was previously removed. However, when a new revision ismade, a new revision identifier is used, such that no component of thecontrol and monitoring system 24 confuses the undone revision with thenew revision with the same number.

For example, each of the revisions in FIG. 7 have an associatedidentifier. Revision 211 has an identifier of M, 212 has an identifierof R, the original revision 213 has an identifier of T and the originalrevision 214 has an identifier of X. When revisions 214 and 213 areundone, they are removed from the pending revisions. If they are“redone,” they are re-added to the pending changes, regeneratingrevisions with the same identifiers T and X. However, in the currentexample, new changes are made, creating new revisions 213 and 214 withidentifiers S and Y, respectively. Because they are completely newrevisions, new identifiers S and Y are used to identify the revisions.Once the first client comes back online and re-subscribes for updates,there will be no doubt that it is not currently up to date because itsfinal revision is 214-X and the current revision is 214-Y. In someembodiments, the first client may be updated by tracing the revisionnumbers and identifiers to find the edit path and update the revisioninformation accordingly. In other embodiments, when inconsistentrevision number identifiers are found, the component may be reloadedwith the entire set of state information (e.g., all of the stateelements 160).

Changes may be made to the golden copy (e.g., golden copy 162 of FIG. 6)outside of the collaborative session (e.g., collaborative session 154 ofFIG. 6) where pending edits are being made. FIG. 8 illustrates ascenario where external changes to the golden copy 162 are made whilepending edits are currently being made in the collaborative session 154.As illustrated, a first pending change Δ 1 is applied to revision 221-Bof object 210 generating revision 222-J. Additionally, second and thirdpending changes Δ 2 and Δ 3 are applied to generate revisions 223-N and224-D, respectively. Before the pending changes Δ 1, Δ 2, and Δ 3 arecommitted, an external change Δ 1′ is applied by another component ofthe control and monitoring system 24 to the golden copy 162, which iscurrently on revision 221-B. When the collaborative session 154 receivesnotification that a new revision 222 exists, it backs out pendingchanges Δ 3, A 2, and Δ 1 (holding them as forward deltas to beprocessed in the future). The collaborative session then applies thedelta script for revision 222-H, and then reapplies pending changes Δ 1,Δ 2, and Δ 3, which create revisions 223-R, 224-C, and 225-X,respectively. In some cases, pending changes Δ 1, Δ 2, and Δ 3 may bemodified in order to be applied after revision 222-H. In someembodiments, the audience member making pending changes in thecollaborative session 154 may be notified that the pending changes arebeing applied over a recent external change to the golden copy 162.

In certain situations, a user may desire to abort pending changes madein a collaborative session 154. FIG. 9 illustrates a process foraborting pending revisions in a collaborative session 154. Asillustrated in the current example, a user creates pending changes Δ 1off of revision 221-B, generating revision 222-J. A pending change Δ 2is created off of revision 222-J, generating revision 223-N. Further,pending change Δ 3 is created off of state 223-N, generating revision224-D. The user may determine that the changes are not necessary and/orundesirable and may cancel the changes (e.g., by selecting a cancelbutton in the programming terminal 46 of FIG. 2). To back out thepending changes, components with pending state changes may apply reversedeltas for each of the pending changes (e.g., Δ 3, Δ 2, and Δ 1) suchthat the original non-pending revision (e.g., revision 51-B) remains.Alternatively, the components may simply reload the full stateinformation from the golden copy 162, because the golden copy 162 hasthe latest non-pending revision stored (e.g., the revision that does notinclude the changes that are to be aborted). Thus, as illustrated inFIG. 9, through reverse deltas or reloading from the golden copy 162,the collaborative session is left with revision 221-B at time T1. Thus,the collaborative session is available to take on additional edits (e.g.Δ 4) off of revision 221-B, generating a new revision 222-R at time T2.

In certain situations, it may be beneficial to compress multiple pendingchanges into one revision rather than creating separate revisions foreach of the pending changes. FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment wheresome of the pending changes are combined into one set of edits, suchthat fewer revisions are generated. As illustrated, at time T0 an editsession is opened. Pending changes are applied to the revision 221-B,generating revisions 222-J, 223-N, and 224-D. The pending changes mayrelate to changes made to a common state element (e.g., each change maymodify the spatial location of a rectangle on a display). For example,revision 222-J may place the rectangle in the center of the screen,revision 223-N may update the rectangle location to the upper left handcorner of the screen, and revision 224-D may update the location to thebottom left hand corner of the screen. Thus, while several value changeshave been applied, only the delta from the original (e.g., revision221-B) to the final value (e.g., bottom left hand corner placement onthe screen as described in revision 224-D) may be needed. Therefore, theintermediate revisions in the collaborative session 154 may be collapsedinto a single revision on the golden copy 162. Thus, as shown at T2,pending changes Δ 1, Δ 2, and Δ 3 are compressed and applied to revision221-B, resulting in revision 222-R. In embodiments where components areconfigured to fully reload all state information upon detecting aconflicting identifier associated with a revision number, the componentsmay reload all state information for revision 222-R upon being notifiedthat revision 222-R is available (as illustrated at T3). As one ofordinary skill in the art would appreciate, this is merely one form ofcompression that may be applied to combine deltas. The provided exampleis not intended to limit the techniques of compression for the pendingchanges.

Distributed Command Execution

Turning now to a discussion of how changes are applied within thecontrol and monitoring system 24 once they are communicated, FIG. 11illustrates a control and monitoring system 24 with a variety ofcomponents (e.g., HMI terminal 26, control/monitoring device 30,programming terminal 46, smart input/output devices 260, and dumbinput/output (I/O) devices 262). The smart I/O devices 260 may include acentral processing unit (CPU), such that the smart I/O devices 260 mayexecute logic based upon data provided to them. The dumb I/O devices 262may not include a CPU, and thus may rely upon a controller to applylogic to their inputs.

Execution engines 264 may be embedded within various components of thecontrol and monitoring system 24 that can support them. In one example,components with CPUs are embedded with the execution engines 264. Theexecution engines 264 enable changes in the control and monitoringsystem 24 (e.g., state deltas 43) to be applied to the variouscomponents with embedded execution engines 264. The execution engines264 contain commands (e.g., command scripts 266) and trigger conditions268. The command scripts 266 are executed by the execution engine 264upon a trigger condition 268 evaluating to true. For example, a triggercondition 268 may evaluate to true when there is a change in state of asmart I/O device 260 or dumb I/O device 262, a change in value of datain the control/monitoring device 30 (e.g., produced by the delta scripts170), and/or when a user interacts with the HMI 26. By distributingexecution engines 264 throughout various components of the control andmonitoring system 24, control and monitoring system 24 changes may bemore effectively handled. For example, the processing power of CPUs ofthe various components may be utilized to perform control logic neededfor the components of the control and monitoring system 24. Further,execution of the commands on the various components of the control andmonitoring system 24 may increase redundancy and/or provide betterplaces to execute the commands than a centralized controller. Forexample, a smart I/O device 260 is enabled to execute logic specific tothe smart I/O device 260 in response to changes of the control andmonitoring system 24, without relying on the control/monitoring device30.

As discussed above, some components (e.g., dumb I/O device 262) may notbe able to support an embedded execution engine 264 or may support anexecution engine 264 but not have one embedded. These components mayrely on other components (e.g., control/monitoring device 30) to executelogic for the components that do not have an embedded execution engine84. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 11, the dumb I/O device 262 doesnot have an embedded execution engine 264. Instead, data is polled usingtraditional logic of the control/monitoring device 30 (e.g., LadderLogic (LL), Function Block Diagrams (FBD), Sequential Function Charts(SFC), etc.).

The commands (e.g., command scripts 266, such as user and/or systemdefined relay ladder logic) may be computer-readable instructions (e.g.,objects) stored on a tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium(e.g., a hard-drive, a database, read-only memory, and/or random accessmemory) to be executed upon a trigger condition or at a scheduled time.For example, the commands may be stored in the data containers 158 ofFIG. 5. The commands may inherit properties and/or a base set offunctionality from a command base class. Specific properties andbehaviors may be added to the base class, to derive other commandclasses, such as classes for screen navigation and writing tag values,etc. In certain embodiments, the command base class may includeparameters, or a collection of parameter data name/value pairs that maybe used for inputs and outputs. Further, the command base class mayinclude a “done” property that indicates that a command has finishedexecution. The command base class may include an error property thatindicates that a command execution has stopped due to an error. Further,the command base class may include a parent property that is used by thecontrol and monitoring system 24 to determine who is responsible formemory clean up of the command (e.g., what entity should delete thecommand from the data containers 158 after execution). The command baseclass may include a name property that identifies the command. The nameproperty may be used in expressions and trigger conditions 268, suchthat properties of the command may trigger additional commands. Thecommand base class may include a progress property that indicates theprogress of execution of the command and may also have a timed outproperty that indicates that execution of a command has timed out (e.g.,has not executed within an allotted time period). The command base classmay include a schedule property that adds the command to an appropriatethread of execution, which will be discussed in more detail below.Further, the command base class may include an execute property thatinclude execution instructions.

In certain embodiments, the commands may be composited, or broughttogether. There are two basic forms of compositing: sequential commandcompositing and parallel command compositing. In sequential commandcomposites, each command brought together in the group are executed oneat a time, in a given order. One example of a useful sequential commandcomposite may be a set of commands to 1) write a tag to start a tankfilling, 2) wait for a specific tag value, and 3) change the state of agraphical element. The following is a pseudocode example of a possiblesequential command composite:

<Sequence>   <WriteTag ref=”mytank” ... >   <WaitFortrigger=”mytank.fill==100” ... >   <SetState ref=”myTankDoneText”state=”Done” /> </Sequence>In parallel command composites, each command brought together in thecomposite is executed at the same time. For example, the write tagcommands below may be executed at the same start time:

<Parallel>   <WriteTag ref=’valve_inlet.close’ value=’true’ />  <WriteTag ref=’valve_outlet.open’ value=’true’ /> </Parallel>In certain embodiments, the command composites may include a combinationof sequential and parallel composites. For example:

<Parallel>   <WriteTag name=”cmd1” />   <WriteTag name=”cmd2” />  <Sequence>     <WaitFor trigger=”cmd1.done && cmd2.done”>    <SetState ... />   </Sequence> </Parallel>

Turning now to FIG. 12, an embodiment of a frame loop 300, executedthrough the execution engines, is provided. The frame loop 300 is a setof computer-readable instructions that run for controlled periods oftime (e.g., 30 times per second). The goal of the frame loop 300 is toreact to data changes (e.g., state deltas 43) provided to the executionengines 264 of FIG. 11. As illustrated, the frame loop 300 may evaluateexpressions at block 302. For example, expression data (e.g., values ofdata objects) are provided via a data acquisition thread 303, whichaccesses state data of the control and monitoring system 24. The frameloop evaluates trigger conditions (e.g., trigger conditions 268 of FIG.11) at block 304 based upon the evaluated expressions. If any of thetrigger conditions 268 evaluate to true based upon the evaluatedexpressions, the commands (e.g., command scripts 266 of FIG. 11)associated with the trigger conditions 268 may be scheduled or executed.As will be discussed in more detail below, with regards to FIG. 13,certain commands may be executed within the frame loop 300 and othersmay be scheduled and executed in other threads or thread pools (e.g.,user input thread 305 and thread pool 307). The frame commands, orcommands that are scheduled to run in the frame loop 300, are executedat block 106. Next, any transition updates (e.g., a computer-readableinstruction of how to change from one value to another) are executed atblock 308. One example of a transition update may include a graphicalanimation to signify a change in state, such as animated arrowsillustrating a flow for an open valve, or a fade out for a recent statechange that is graphically-represented. The frame loop 300 may thenrender the changes applied by the executed commands (e.g., rendering anupdated screen image and/or new data values).

As discussed above, the frame loop 300 may be run for controlled periodsof time (e.g., 30 time per second). In some embodiments, frame loop 300performance may be tuned by skipping a portion of the frame loop 100 atgiven time intervals. For example, assuming that the frame loop 300 runs30 times per second, the frame loop 300 may be designed to runexpression evaluation (block 102) every third frame, the triggers may beevaluated (block 304) at every third frame, starting with the secondframe, and the transition updates (block 308) may be rendered everythird frame starting with the third frame. The rendering (block 310) maycontinue to execute at every frame, or may be optimized run only whenchanges have occurred. Thus, each of the blocks may still be executed inorder, but throttled to execute with less frequency (e.g., one-third thefrequency or 10 frames per second).

Further, the frame rate may be modified based upon the hardware runningthe execution engine 264. For example, in some embodiments, when lowerpower processors are utilized such as ARM® based systems, the frame loopmay run at 12 frames per second, when an atom based system is used, theframe loop may execute 30 frames per second, when a desktop is used, theframe loop may execute 60 frames per second, and when a browser basedsystem is used, the frame loop may execute 24 frames per second.Further, transition options may allow fewer transitions (e.g., 1 forevery 6 frames) and/or may allow transitions to render less often (e.g.,not every frame) depending on the platform that is used. The executionengine 264 may also adapt to tune the frame loop 300 during runtimebased on the determined execution times of the various stages of theframe loop 300. For example, expression heavy screens may need moreexpression evaluation time and transition heavy screens may need moretransition processing/execution time.

Turning now to a discussion of how commands are scheduled to execute,FIG. 13 illustrates a process 320 for scheduling commands, in accordancewith an embodiment. The scheduling process 320 begins when a triggercondition 268 evaluates to true at block 322. As previously discussed,there may be one or more commands associated with the trigger condition268. Depending on the type of commands that are associated with thetrigger condition 268, the process 320 may take one of two paths. Thecommands may be either a frame command 324 or a thread command 326.Frame commands 324 affect data on the main frame loop 300. To beexecuted on the main frame loop 300, the frame commands 324 may be addedto a frame command list 326. The frame commands 324 may then be executedon the main frame loop 300 (block 306 of FIG. 12). Typically, thesecommands change data that necessitates a re-rendering of data. Thus,these commands may be executed prior to rendering (block 310 of FIG.12).

Thread commands 326, are commands that do not access data in the memoryspace of the frame loop 300 execution. These commands are free to bescheduled on a different thread than the frame loop 300. Thus, when atrigger condition 268 evaluates to true for a thread command 326, thethread command is scheduled to run in a thread pool 307. By utilizingthe thread pool 307, more efficient use of resources may be obtained.For example, by keeping thread commands 326 off of the frame loop 300thread, the frame loop 300 is free to execute the more importantcommands and/or the commands that must be run on the frame loop 300.

While only certain features of the invention have been illustrated anddescribed herein, many modifications and changes will occur to thoseskilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appendedclaims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fallwithin the true spirit of the invention.

1. A control and monitoring system, comprising: at least one automationcontroller; and a distributed model stored on the automation controller,wherein the distributed model is configured such that: changes to thedistributed model are compiled into delta scripts; and wherein thecontroller is configured to execute commands based upon trigger eventssent by the automation controller and/or by automation controlcomponents outside the automation controller.
 2. The control andmonitoring system of claim 1, comprising: a plurality of automationcontrol components networked together and with the automationcontroller; wherein the distributed model is further defined to includethe plurality of networked components and the distributed model is alsostored on the one or more of the plurality of automation controlcomponents; and wherein both the automation controller and one or moreof the plurality of automation control components are configured toexecute commands based upon trigger events sent by the automationcontroller and/or the automation control components.
 3. The control andmonitoring system of claim 2, wherein multiple copies of the distributedmodel are stored in the control and monitoring system
 24. 4. The controland monitoring system of claim 3, wherein the multiple copies aresynchronized by providing the delta scripts to components storing themultiple copies as the delta scripts are compiled.
 5. The control andmonitoring system of claim 3, wherein a client request for data in thedistributed model may be served by any one of the multiple copies. 6.The control and monitoring system of claim 3, wherein a client requestfor data is served by a specific one of the multiple copies based uponperformance efficiencies.
 7. The control and monitoring system of claim3, wherein a client request for data is served by an automationcontroller that is less utilized to avoid flooding of higher utilizedautomation controllers with data requests.
 8. The control and monitoringsystem of claim 3, comprising a monitoring application configured todetect one or more unstable versions of the multiple copies that do notaccurately represent the distributed model.
 9. The control andmonitoring system of claim 8, wherein the monitoring application isconfigured to obtain a stable version of the distributed model fromamong the multiple copies to replace the unstable version.
 10. Thecontrol and monitoring system of claim 9, wherein the control andmonitoring system is configured to replace the unstable version with thestable version.
 11. The control and monitoring system of claim 3,wherein the control and monitoring system is configured to place theautomation controller and/or the plurality of automation controlcomponents storing the multiple copies of the distributed model in apool of automation controllers, wherein the controller, the plurality ofautomation control components, or both are configured to obtain datarelating to the distributed model from the pool of automationcontrollers.
 12. The control and monitoring system of claim 11, whereinthe control and monitoring system is configured to: detect one or moreunstable versions of the multiple copies from the pool of automationcontrollers, wherein the unstable versions are copies of the distributedmodel that do not accurately represent the distributed model; and removethe controller and/or the plurality of automation control componentsstoring the unstable versions from the pool of automation controllers.13. The control and monitoring system of claim 12, wherein the controland monitoring system is configured to: replace the unstable versionswith stable versions; and return the controller, the plurality ofautomation control components, or both storing the replaced stableversions to the pool of automation controllers.
 14. A tangible,computer-readable medium, comprising computer-readable instructions to:compile changes to a distributed model of an control and monitoringsystem into a delta script, provide the delta scripts to an automationcontroller, automation control components, or both that subscribe tochange notifications of the distributed model, and execute commandsbased upon trigger events sent by the automation controller, theautomation control components, or both.
 15. The computer-readable mediumof claim 14, comprising computer-readable instructions to cache aversion of the distributed model for human-machine interfaces,web-clients, or both that access data in the distributed model.
 16. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 15, comprising computer-readableinstructions to consume one or more delta scripts and apply changesdefined in the delta scripts to the cached version of the distributedmodel.
 17. The computer-readable medium of claim 15, comprisingcomputer-readable instructions to divert data requests of thehuman-machine interface, web-clients, or both from the automationcontroller to the cached version of the distributed model.
 18. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 15, comprising computer-readableinstructions to: detect when the cached version of the distributed modelis unstable and does not accurately represent the distributed model; andreplace the cached version with a valid version when the cached versionis unstable.
 19. A method, comprising: compiling one or more changes ofa data model into a delta script configured to define the changes;distributing the delta script to one or more of a plurality ofautomation control components, an automation controller, or bothdistributed within an control and monitoring system; and executing, viaan execution engine of the one or more of the plurality of automationcontrol components, the automation controller, or both, commands basedupon trigger events determined by the automation controller, theautomation control components, or both.
 20. The method of claim 19,comprising distributing the delta script only to a subset of theplurality of automation control components and the automation controllerthat subscribe to change notifications of the data model.
 21. The methodof claim 19, comprising caching the data model on at least a subset ofthe plurality of automation control components and the automationcontroller.
 22. The method of claim 21, comprising enabling dataredundancy through use of the cached version.
 23. The method of claim21, comprising enabling load balancing by using the cached version. 24.The method of claim 21, comprising enabling collaborative design betweenmultiple automation designers by using the cached version.